Fluorescent lighting for digital photography studios: Westcott Spiderlite TD5

This innovative Westcott Spiderlite TD5 fixture can be used with fluorescent lamps at 5500 degrees Kelvin or Halogen lamps at 3200 Kelvin (the color temperature of tungsten lamps).

Westcott stand

FLAAR uses fluorescent lights due to their lack of heat. Most museums don’t allow hot lights (tungsten lamps go up to 1000 watts and over). The Halogen lamp alternative for the Westcott Spiderlite TD5 series is 150 watts, so nowhere near the heat of a traditional 1000 watt bulb.

FLAAR photographs pre-Columbian art as well as plants and animals that are associated with pre-Columbian Mayan archaeology, iconography, epigraphy, and religion. So we need cool lamps.

But you can also use these Westcott Spiderlite TD5 fluorescent lights for portrait lighting, product photography lighting, etc. FLAAR Reports provide tips, help, information, and reviews of the equipment used.

The F. J. Westcott company is in Toledo, which is our neighbor to the north. In addition to lighting, they also have seminars and training programs, so check out their website. Remember how to spell Westcott correction, and add the FJ in front: fjwestcott.com.

We do not yet have the Westcott TD3 Spiderlites so can't yet evaluate their performance in the field. Whereas the TD5 Spiderlites have 5 lamps, the TD3 have three, hence they can be battery powered for a reasonable time period. 5 lamps would be too much power to draw from a battery.

Westcott Siderlite TD5: tungsten halogen digital photography lamps

FLAAR uses Westcott TD5 Spiderlites

Here you can see the photography of botanical specimens in the FLAAR photo studio in Guatemala. This digital photography is part of our long range projects to study Mayan ethnobotany.

While on the subject of photographing botanical specimens, if you do field work Westcott makes a Spiderlite TD3 which is portable.

She is photographing botanical specimens.

First posted January 14, 2008

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